The Flame-O-Phone: the only saxophone that I’m aware of that spews up to 5 feet of flames out of its bell. Activated by a simple keyboard sustain pedal, 3 cans of propane, 2 9V batteries, and a whole mess of plumbing equipment, this vintage Noblet bari sax is totally…. hot? wow.

This idea has been brewing for about 4 or 5 years, when I was on tour with the Pontani Sisters. Their 14-piece troupe included the fire-breathing, sword swallowing MC, Tyler Fyre. He was an absolute trip to be on tour with, and we spent many hours talking about how to make something like the Flame-O-Phone an actuality. Though he was a genuine Fire Breather, and knew his way around the basic flamables, he was by no means a fire ARTIST.

Needless to say, the Flame-O-Phone stuck in my head for several years, and every once-in-a-while I would bring it up in random conversations. I always got that look I seem to know so well at this point, which said: “You’re crazy.”

A few months ago, Tin Pan was asked to provide a live soundtrack to the alternative play, The Wonderneath. They include fire art in the play, and were open to extreme and crazy suggestions from the band : I told them of my long dream to create a fire-breathing saxophone. Ali introduced me to Claire. Claire introduced me to Ben. Ben Bartelle is an absolute Fire-Art specialist. One of those guys who makes giant flying creatures that spew fire out of 9 spots on their gilded wings or exposed endocrine system. Wild and crazy and brilliant stuff….. and he doesn’t catch the theater on fire while doing it. Which, by the way, is important.

We got to work right away, and within 2 weeks we had this first prototype that you see here. As far as I know, nobody’s done anything quite like this, though people have included small bits of pyro here and there throughout the youtube chronicles. But nothing that’s fully integrated, and can be triggered to, literally, accompany individual notes; cadences and nuances within the music; spontaneous and improvised fire-music improvisations.

I won’t go into the details of how it works here, but I’m not afraid to share the small bit of information I have. I hope you enjoy this video, and stay tuned for more extensive videos and demonstrations, as I become more comfortable on this new instrument, and perhaps even stream-line some of the mechanisms.

Enjoy : the Flame-O-Phone!!!